Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

After Trip to ISS, SpaceX's Dragon Capsule Returns Safely To Earth

Posted by timothy on from the congratulations-all-around dept.

thomas.kane writes "SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has successfully reentered and is now safely in the waters of the Pacific Ocean after more than 9 days in space. The Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station on May 25; SpaceX is contracted by NASA for at least 12 more flights in the coming months bringing supplies to the space station and returning science done on board back to Earth." Reader MightyMartian adds a link to coverage at the BBC.

9 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Fantastic. Now let's see NASA push further! by Sgs-Cruz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is fantastic news. I don't care what you think of space policy or anything, this is a good day for everybody.

    Now, let's see NASA make good on their promise to hand over LEO to the private sector so they can think about Mars and beyond!

    --

    Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).

    1. Re:Fantastic. Now let's see NASA push further! by Moheeheeko · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The funny thing is, SpaceX is already looking to Mars. The heat shield is designed to survive re-entry from a deep space trajectory.

    2. Re:Fantastic. Now let's see NASA push further! by edremy · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Have humans brought things back? No. There have been various proposed Mars sample return missions but they've always been too expensive.

      Has nature? Yes. There are quite a few meteorites that originated on Mars.

      --
      "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
    3. Re:Fantastic. Now let's see NASA push further! by demachina · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Elon Musk's primary goal in founding SpaceX is to go to Mars and I would give him as good a chance of acheiving it as anyone.

      The shuttle being decommisioned improves the odds of going to Mars, not reduces them. It was a money sink and it promoted the mind set of being stuck in LEO because it was stuck in LEO. It had also acquired so many restrictions for safety issues it was barely doing its vastly reduced mission. It had turned in to a pork barrell project to make jobs at NASA, Boeing and Lockheed, not do anything worthwhile in space (outside of servicing Hubble).

      Intelsat signed the first commercial contract for Falcon Heavy yesterday and if SpaceX can successfully build and launch those, and even better recover and reuse them, they will be a far more valuable tool in leaving LEO and going to Mars than Shuttle every would be.

      I personally dont think bone loss and eyesight are going to be show stopping issue for Mars. Radiation exposure in deep space and on the surface of Mars is the serious issue unless you can get a ship with enough shielding and propulsion to move the shielding.

      Me personally and I'm sure lots of others would volunteer for a Mars mission even if it was a one way mission and life shortening. To me the ideal mission to Mars is a one way trip with a permenent stay, and a logistics train to support a permenent colony. The zero G issues are more a problem returning to 1G and earth than they would be staying in 1/3 G on Mars which isn't as bad as zero G. A one way trip also saves a long return trip in zero G to get back to Earth. Even if zero G is a problem you can build a larger ship and spin it enough to get 1/3 G. That is an engineering challenge, not a show stopping issue.

      --
      @de_machina
  2. Observation by PPH · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In digging around various information sources on Dragon, I noticed something odd: It appears in thisphoto that the capsule is equipped with standard red/green navigation lights. Are these actual nav lights? Are they an FAA requirement?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Observation by weiserfireman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      interesting

      But I would imagine it has to do more with docking the spaceship rather than reentry. The way they are both oriented on the same side is what makes me believe that.

      Red/green lights are normally located on opposite sides of the aircraft/ship so that you can tell which direction it is going at night.

  3. An era of trillionaires by Prune · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be interesting to see if the human expansion into space eventually ushers in further extension of the extremes of inequality, with the first trillionaires (as measured in today's currency, adjusted for inflation) being, say, asteroid mining tycoons. I don't yet have much of an opinion here; I'm more interested on reading others' thoughts on this.

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
  4. Re:Everybody's thinking it... by crypticedge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Death Star was built by government labor, as was the Enterprise.

  5. Stupid Wikipedia by Chibi+Merrow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read your post and immediately thought "How did he link to the Wikipedia article and not see where it mentions piloted spacecraft?" only to find out someone deleted all references to spacecraft in January with no explanation.

    You can see the previous version here.

    My understanding is that manned, piloted spacecraft are supposed to have nav lights on them. The Shuttle didn't have them because the FAA gave them a waiver and special airspace.

    --
    Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
    Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them